Flight out of camp delayed one day due to weather. This is surely not unusual this time of year. $4,400 total to change our tickets out of Whitehorse by one day. No problems with guns this time except ticket rep in Calgary when we went to check back in after clearing customs scammed us out of a bogus $50

COSTS

Hunting
Fees:

Amount:

$11670

Trophy Fees:

$2,000 caribou, $2,000 goat, $4,000 grizzly

Amount:

$8000

Permits/Licenses:

Moose included. $1,000 grizzly, $350 goat, $275 caribou.

Amount:

$1625

Commercial
Airfares:

Amount:

$2300

Charter Airfares:

Included.

Amount:

$0

Other Costs:

Tips, hotels in Whitehorse before and after hunt.

Amount:

$0

Total:

$0

SUMMARY
REMARKS

Problems
of Hunt:

No major problems.

Highlights
of Hunt:

Fantastic scenery, excellent trophy quality of moose, great horses, great camps. The absolute highlight was sharing the experience when my freind took a truly world class moose.

Seeking any
kind of restitution or other settlement from agent, outfitter
or guide?

If Seeking Restitution, What is Sought?

ADDITIONAL
HUNTER COMMENTS AND/OR OUTFITTER/BOOKING AGENT REBUTTAL

We have a group of 4, all in our late 30's now, which has done an annual hunting trip for 15 years or so. We did mainly do-it-yourself bird hunting trips in the western US, Canada and Alaska until we started transitioning to big game the last few years. We have always discussed a moose hunt but it has been prohibitively expensive. We began saving a few years ago and made the decision that 2010 would be our year. Our research revealed what I'm sure most of your readers know: Canada moose are generally smaller than Alaska-Yukon moose and, accordingly, a little more affordable. We spent much of 2009 researching and visiting by phone and email with various outfitters. What we learned is that, as one might expect, the further north in the Canada moose's range you get (the BC/Yukon border is the dividing line), the bigger and wider the moose and, again, the more expensive the hunt. We decided we may only do this once and we wanted the biggest bang for our buck so we started narrowing it down to outfitters in northern BC. By the time of the Dallas Safari Club Convention in January 2010, we had it narrowed down to a dozen or so. What we quickly discovered is these guys, as a rule, were not going to budge from their published prices until after Reno. This was disheartening as most of these guys have published prices in the $15,000 range for a moose hunt and adding a second species makes it even more outrageous. The outfitters we narrowed it down to included Northwest Big Game Outfitters, Guy Antilla's Hunts, BC Safaris, Gundahoo River, Scoop Lake Outfitters, Indian River Ranch, Cassiar Stone and a handful of others. By the time Reno rolled around, only Shane Black of BC Safaris and Allan Larson of Indian River Ranch seemed interested in negotiating any kind of a reduced price and both of these outfitters looked to have exactly what we were looking for: big moose, variety of game and a real wilderness experience. In the end, the one factor which tipped the scales towards us hunting with Allan is that the northern edge of his concession is the Yukon border, a fact that we thought might increase our odds of getting a record book moose. From conversations I have had since we booked our hunt, it appears that a lot of outfitters really struggled to fill all their hunts this year and realized too late that the economy really is in a slump, people really are getting tighter with their money and it was a bad idea to not be willing to negotiate a little. We flew into Whitehorse and overnighted then Allan picked us up the next morning and drove us 2 hours or so SE to his place near Atlin, BC. We were supposed to fly out to camp that afternoon but the charter had gotten backed up and we didn't make it out until the next afternoon. Once we made it to camp, there were all kinds of delays as horses needed shoes, base camp needed tending and so forth. We did a quick hunt that evening but it really took us the better part of 2 days to actually get hunting. We were hunting 1:1 with our guides. The guy who got the grizzly as well as a good moose (green score after deductions 189 inches, minimum for B&C book 185) went off with his guide that first day and we didn't see him again until the last day. He hunted 2 days ride from the rest of us and described grizzlies as abundant, big moose as scarce, with the one he shot being the only really big bull he saw. He did not see caribou, goat or wolf. Another of our group had goat as a priority species and, after a very hard 4-5 straight days of hunting and seeing a few scattered groups, took his goat at 642 yards across a gorge with the goat free-falling over 50 feet and breaking off a horn which they were unable to find. Unfortunately, the time he spent goat hunting cost him the opportunity at a moose though he did get glimpses of a few that he and his guide were unsuccessful at catching up with. It looked like the rut was just getting going towards the end of our hunt. Richard Wedel (also a Hunting Report subscriber) and I hunted out of the same camp with Rick spending the entire week sitting on a lake where there was evidence of rutting activity. I spent much of the week on the other end of the lake but spent a few days riding up to high points and glassing. That's how I got my caribou (the only mature bull seen all week by any in our group) which was a nice representative animal but not trophy class. Allan does take some very nice caribou but it sounds like they are primarily concentrated in a different part of his concession. Between Rick and I we saw moose each day, getting glimpses of mature bulls every few days but neither of us being able to connect. On the last night of the hunt, my guide called in a nice representative moose from who knows how far. We first spotted him at over 600 yards. When I finally squeezed the trigger, he was at 20 and no less than 50 willows had been torn to shreds while he closed that distance. It was far more exciting than I can put into words. We had just one half day left to hunt after that and Richard's head was starting to hang. He had spent every single day on this lake hunting from early to late and hadn't even had a close encounter. As I was tagged out, I hunted with Rick that last morning. I couldn't have written the story better. Rick practices his long-range shooting constantly and lugged his heavy 300 Win Mag all the way up to Canada. In fact, I think he would have enjoyed a 20 yard shot like mine far less than he did his long shot across the lake. The huge bull seemed to just materialize out of the fog. Rick had me on the rangefinder and when I told him "500", he smiled ear to ear. I told him to "send it" (Richard taught me some "sniper talk"). I was watching through my binocs and I will never forget the impact of that perfect shot. The dew that shot out from the bull's chest in a perfect circle looked like a puff of smoke. Rather than taking off into the trees which I expected him to do, he turned straight towards us and charged right at us. Fortunately he was 500 yards away and there was a lake between us. Allan knew exactly what was going on and yelled "Don't let him get in the water!" Rick sent 2 more down range which we later confirmed were also perfect straight-on hits. When he stepped into the water we knew he was finished but he went 10 yards out into the lake before dropping. Allan and the other guide ended up having to butcher him in the water which was a long, cold process but there was no budging him. When we stretched the tape to him we were initially disappointed to see his spread was only 53 inches as he looked like an absolute monster. When we started taking additional measurements, including his almost 9-inch circumference bases, we were very pleasantly surprised to get a green score after deductions of 203.5 inches which even after drying ought to easily make "all-time" Boone & Crockett. Please see picture under "Richard Wedel" in the photo section. All in all it was a very good hunt. I expected to see more game and I definitely don't think it was a good idea for me to take my first Africa trip just 2 months before this (see separate report). Going from seeing 200+ head of game a day to maybe seeing a single cow some days was a challenge. Allan's moose hunting areas are very heavily timbered and I think that's one reason game seemed scarce. The real reason however is that in the north, unless you come across a migrating herd of caribou, game just isn't as densely populated as in more southerly climes. The line used by some outfitters that northern BC is "The Serengeti of the North" is a little misleading. If I have any other complaints it might be that Allan is a little disorganized at times and an awful lot of potential hunting time is spent in camp "dilly-dallying" but Allan and his guides do work hard to get their hunters their animals. His process of getting capes and antlers home left a little to be desired as well. His only option he offers is to drop them off at a taxidermist in Whitehorse and arrange for him to either mount them and ship mounts to you or prepare them, package them and ship. On this latter option, we were looking at somewhere around $2500 for all the animals so we chose to leave them with the taxidermist to mount. It seems to me that a crating and shipping service that Allan or one of his guides could do for his clients for a more reasonable fee would be fairly simple and I suggested that to him.

Subscriber-Written Trip Report On Indian River Ranch Guide and Outfitters Hunts

Below is one sample of such a Report which is made available to you FREE of Charge.

I've been to United Kingdom, British Columbia, Montana, Ontario, Wyoming, Alaska. A lot of places.

Physical Condition:

Good.

IMPORTANT
NOTES (actions taken if hunter unhappy with hunt)

Notified Outfitter? Yes

Notified Personal Guide?

Notified Booking Agent? Yes

Seeking any
kind of restitution or other settlement from agent, outfitter
or guide?

If Seeking Restitution, What is Sought?

ADDITIONAL
HUNTER COMMENTS AND/OR OUTFITTER/BOOKING AGENT REBUTTAL

My report on the Indian River Ranch/Allan Larson encompassed two hunting seasons, 2007 and 2008. I spent an accumulative of 28 days at the IRR camps in 2007 and 2008. In 2007, I booked a multi-species hunt, where stone sheep were my main objective. I'm not going to recap the 2007 hunt; I'm just going to say I never saw a Stone sheep. Because of this, IRR offered to bring me back in 2008. In 2008, I was also unsuccessful. I was however lucky enough to see a few Stone sheep. On the first day, we saw a band of illegal rams. On the last day, we saw the same band around 6:00 in the evening.

I have a few observations which the perspective stone sheep hunter should consider when booking with IRR. The first of these would start at the top with manager, Allan Larson. Allan is a very unpredictable person and manager. His organizational skills cause a lot of friction between him and his employees. Due to these issues, he has a hard time keeping good sheep guides. In 2008 his best guide, which had been with him for many years, up and quit just before I arrived. The guide was upset with the lack of supplies Allan brought in for the animals to live on for the whole season. In 2007, I also observed issues between Allan and this guide, when they bumped heads in the tack house. I personally was a victim of Allan's management skills in both years. The first year Allan was scrambling for guides, he arranged for a kid to guide me, which two weeks before the season was a sludge hauler in the Slave Lake Area. The kid had never held a guide license and had never been to the hunting area as well. Also, Allan Larson is not in control of his event scheduling. For my return hunt in 2008, Allan advised me to book my stay in Whitehorse for certain dates, which I did. I was very surprised when he whisked me out of camp three days early. When I got back to Whitehorse I was extremely fortunate that my hotel had mercy on me and booked me 3 extra nights in their best smoking room. This little incident cost me an additional $500, for room and food. This was not the most egregious of things that Allan did to me. After dropping me off in Whitehorse, I was subjected to torture more sinister than water boarding. You may ask what this torture may be. What could Allan Larson have done to me more horrible than water boarding? I was confined to a smoking room for three days and nights with the smells of stale cigarettes, nothing more than weather reports and constant reruns of what seems to be the areas favorite band known as ABBA. To this day, every time I think of allen Larson I hear the chorus of "If you change your mind take a chance on me." I will take this to my grave; this is my cross to bear for all of eternity.

For the perspective hunter considering IRR for a Stone sheep hunt, there are a few other observations I have to offer. If you are not booked into the Dry Lake Camp or Sheep Camp your odds for success go way down. I hunted five camps in my two years with IRR, and Weir Camp being the only camp that had Stone sheep rams. As mentioned above, these were illegal and they may be legal in 2009. There are other issues to consider, the Air Service IRR uses in Atlin is dropping hunters in on IRR camps. This could affect your outcome, so be warned.

In closing I would like to comment on my booking agent Vance Corrigan. After I looked things over for booking a stone sheep hunt, I felt I should use someone like Vance. He assured me IRR was his best pick for stone sheep. I relied on Vance's reputation as a fellow sheep hunter and his experiences. I sent Vance a deposit and I never heard from him again. I can only think or guess that this is how booking agents conduct their business.

Rebuttal from Vance Corrigan of Hunting Consultants:

I have now had the opportunity to investigate the complaints filed by Mark Gregson, and question the outfitter, Allan Larson of Indian River Outfitters regarding his hunts in 2007 and 2008.

1. Mark claims that the guides for both hunts were not licensed. Mark does not say where he got this information. Allan states both guides were fully licensed and this can easily be verified with the B.C. game department. 2. Mark states that both guides had held other jobs immediately previous to the hunting season. This is correct, as is true with just about all guides, as they must earn a living for the 9 or 10 months when there is no hunting. 3. For 2007 Mark booked a combination hunt for sheep and mt. caribou. While prescouting, Allan had spotted a very good ram. It was spotted by plane in a place that they could not take the horses and required a long hike. Allan states that Mark declined to go after this ram. 4. The guide was young and relatively new at guiding, although his father had been a sheep guide for many years. They lost some days with bad weather and never found a ram. He did collect a mt. caribou. Due to his not collecting a ram, Allan offered Mark a return hunt, not at a discount, but free, which Mark accepted. 5. Mark states that in 2008 his guide had never guided before. Allan states that he had guided for years and guided for sheep outfitter Guy Anttila before he guided for Allan. The guide states that Mark had simply given up for the last three days and did not even take his binoculars with him. On the last day of hunting the guide spotted a band of rams up on a mountain, but Mark told him that he did not want to climb the mountain to look them over. At that point, Allan felt it was pointless to continue and arranged for the charter pilot to fly him back to Whitehorse three days early. 6. As to the charter pilot flying hunters into lakes where Allan's base camps are located, Mark does not state if they are Allan's hunters or resident hunters. If these planes are Allan's hunters, this is the only way to get his hunters in. If he is speaking of resident hunters, they can hire a charter to fly them into any lake they wish. However, if they wanted to hunt sheep it would be almost impossible in this area due to the great distances involved unless they flew in a pack train of horses with them. 7. Allan states that he can't respond to the claim of an argument between himself and a guide or tension between himself and an employee because he has no idea what specifically Mark is talking about. 8. Mark is correct when he states that I had no contact with him after the details of his hunt were formalized. I informed Mark that Allan would answer any questions. I had told Mark he was welcome to call me at any time, but I had no reason to call him. 9. His two events in the Whitehorse hotel had nothing to do with the outfitter so I did not address them. 10. Because I had seen five negative hunting report filings in the previous three years by Mark, I did a lot of searching to find an outfitter he would not be unhappy with. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Rerebuttal from Mark Gregson:

Thanks for your heads up... Vance may say what he wants to my report. That's my story and I'm sticking with it. We'll let the readers make up their own mind. I do find Vance's responses well polished and a interesting spin of the facts. I just hope he didn't lose much sleep over this affair. If the reader of my account finds Vance's closer to the truth I can live with that. I didn't expect the world to change after writing this report.

Subscriber-Written Trip Report On Indian River Ranch Guide and Outfitters Hunts

Below is one sample of such a Report which is made available to you FREE of Charge.

Moose - Availability: Bad weather. Only saw one shooter bull. High wind. Very few moose taken by anybody in NW BC while I was there.

Game
Condition Comments:

Saw some nice caribou, sheep, grizzly bear and wolf.

SERVICE
RATINGS (excellent, good, fair or poor)

Quality
of Outfit:

Good

Guide/PH
Ability:

Excellent

Condition
of Camp:

Fair

Condition
of Equipment:

Good

Quality
of Food:

Good

Trophy
Care:

Name
of Airline:

Delta and Air Canada.

Airline
Service:

Poor

Airline
Comments:

Delta had flight numbers and times all screwed. Missed connections, non-existent flight numbers. Never again on Delta. Do not go through Vancouver BC airport with less than four hours layover. It is a disorganized third-world zoo. Route your trip through Calgary or Edmonton.